Corporate Governance

Much of the outrage over economic inequality in the United States has centered on the high compensation and lack of accountability that corporate executives supposedly enjoy -- allegedly the result of boards at public companies. The truth, however, is that American CEOs now earn less and get fired more than in the recent past.

Listen to Christine A. Varney, assistant attorney general for antitrust at the U.S. Department of Justice, speak about the need for regulation of price fixing and clear punishments for antitrust violations.

Listen to Neville Isdell, chairman of the board of the Coca-Cola Company, discuss the necessary steps for companies to take to become responsible organizations and restore the faith of consumers in industry.

The European Commission has launched proposals to radically reform corporate income tax in the EU with a system known as the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax base. This column in Voxsuggests that this reform would have significant effects on individual member states, but only small effects at the aggregate level in terms of employment, GDP and efficiency.

Reflecting upon the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, Ambassador Mark Lagon and Andrew Reddie suggest that it is in the interest of corporations to protect their employees' safety, rights, and freedom rather than being beholden only to their share price.

Campaign 2012

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says Mitt Romney embodies U.S. business management's view that serving shareholders and investors is crucial to serving society, but as this view is beginning to evolve, Romney should change with it.

One year ago, with spectacular timing, a Wall Streeter named Richard Bookstaber published a book on financial engineering. He called it "A Demon of Our Own Design," and his argument was that a new breed of "quants" had created a system too complex to be manageable. In this Washington Post op-ed, Sebastian Mallaby agrees with Dr. Bookstaber that—in the wake of Bear Stearns—modern financial engineering has become harder to defend.

CFR Experts Guide

The Council on Foreign Relations' David Rockefeller Studies Program—CFR's "think tank"—is home to more than seventy full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners (called "fellows"). Their expertise covers the world's major regions as well as the critical issues shaping today's global agenda. Download the printable CFR Experts Guide.

New Council Special Reports

Campbell evaluates the implications of the Boko Haram insurgency and recommends that the United States support Nigerian efforts to address the drivers of Boko Haram, such as poverty and corruption, and to foster stronger ties with Nigerian civil society.

Koblentz argues that the United States should work with other nuclear-armed states to manage threats to nuclear stability in the near term and establish processes for multilateral arms control efforts over the longer term.

The authors argue that it is essential to begin working now to expand and establish rules and norms governing armed drones, thereby creating standards of behavior that other countries will be more likely to follow.

2014 Annual Report

Learn more about CFR’s mission and its work over the past year in the 2014 Annual Report. The Annual Report spotlights new initiatives, high-profile events, and authoritative scholarship from CFR experts, and includes a message from CFR President Richard N. Haass.Read and download »